Toronto Councillor Doug Ford apologized later in the day, insisting he never had New Orleans on his short list of possible relocating teams and that he should not have included the Saints in his remarks. Ford acknowledged his office received a considerable amount of e-mail from Saints fans as his remarks flew about cyberspace.

Doug Ford

"Have they put me on the most-wanted list down there?" he said.

He also hinted his brother and political ally, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, was among those displeased with the report: Rob Ford attended Super Bowl XLIV, in which the Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts to win the franchise's first title, and fancies himself something of a Saints fan, his brother said.

Doug Ford spoke with TheScore.com, which quoted him as saying that once the NFL sorts out its known desire to get a club up and running in Los Angeles, Toronto would like to get in line for a team.

"(The NFL has) to take care of the problem in Los Angeles first," Ford was quoted as saying. "Two teams are kind of in play here: Jacksonville's No. 1; New Orleans is the other. So there's two teams. Once they take care of Los Angeles, we're going to fly over to New York, set up a meeting with (Commissioner Roger) Goodell and give him our pitch."

To his credit, Ford did not deny the quote.

"It was more a comment made off the cuff," he said.

In fact, he and Rob Ford were stunned when a variety of sources mentioned New Orleans as a possible team in the mix.

"We were like, 'New Orleans? No way!' " Ford recounted. "But it was rumor that had it, it was just a rumor, and I should have been more careful with rumors. I apologize to all of the folks in New Orleans and Louisiana. After all the struggles they've been through, the last thing in the world we would want to do is take away the Saints."

Although the matter seemed farfetched at the outset, the Saints moved with alacrity to squelch it. Saints vice president of communications Greg Bensel released a terse e-mail almost as soon as Ford's words hit the Internet.

"Reports about the Saints as a potential team moving to Toronto are completely false," Bensel wrote. "The New Orleans Saints are committed to the city of New Orleans."

The team pointed to a long-term lease they signed in 2009 that will keep them in the Superdome until 2025. Noting there is a five-year extension option on top of that arrangement, Bensel said, the Saints intend to "have our team playing in front of the greatest fans in the NFL for many years to come."

Furthermore, Saints owner Tom Benson now is involved in lease agreements with Benson Tower and Champions Square, economic development projects that, if successful, would enrich both him and the Central Business District area near the Superdome.

Although Ford repeatedly stressed his error regarding the Saints, he did not back away from the larger premise that Toronto would like an NFL team. Ideally, he said, the city could get a new franchise, but he conceded that does not seem probable at the moment. The Buffalo Bills play one game per season in Toronto.

Currently, Toronto has teams in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association (Raptors) and the National Hockey League. The Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series in 1991-92, but beyond that Toronto sports fans have suffered, especially because its beloved Maple Leafs have gone decades without hoisting the Stanley Cup.

The Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League remain, but one Canadian diplomat who hails from Toronto said the fans in North America's eighth-largest metropolitan market yearn for something bigger and better.

"It's kind of hard to keep up the enthusiasm for the big game against the Hamilton Tiger Cats," the diplomat noted wryly. "In Saskatchewan or Winnipeg, sure, Canadian football is huge there but in Toronto not so much."